2.2 An introduction to spreadsheet software

At this point, since we need to get our data into a machine readable format, it is useful to become familiar with the tools for accessing those formats: spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are computer applications used to store, analyze, organize and manipulate data in the rows and columns of a grid. The program operates by taking in data, which can be numbers or text, into the cells of tables.

If the data is numbers, the program will compute it for you depending on the function you need to be completed.

In this lesson we will explore common features of different spreadsheet software, including Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and Libre Office, and give a brief introduction to spreadsheet rows, columns, cells and tabs.

For the purposes of demonstration we will use examples based on Google Sheets.